The Direct Detection of Boosted Dark Matter at High Energies and PeV events at IceCube

Understand

We study the possibility of detecting dark matter directly via a small but energetic component that is allowed within present-day constraints.

• Drawing closely upon the fact that neutral current neutrino nucleon interactions are indistinguishable from DM-nucleon interactions at low energies, we extend this feature to high energies for a small, non-thermal but highly energetic population of DM particle $\chi$, created via the decay of a significantly more massive and long-lived non-thermal relic $\phi$, which forms the bulk of DM.
• If $\chi$ interacts with nucleons, its cross-section, like the neutrino-nucleus coherent cross-section, can rise sharply with energy leading to deep inelastic scattering, similar to neutral current neutrino-nucleon interactions at high energies.
• Thus, its direct detection may be possible via cascades in very large neutrino detectors.